Habs’ power play sinks Flyers in fantasy game

Suffering Canadiens withdrawal? The Gazette has the answer with the ultimate fantasy experience as Canadiens beat writer Pat Hickey and Gazette techie Eric Tobon employ EA Sports NHL 13 to produce The Season That Isn’t. Here’s how things might have looked in Thursday night’s game between the Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers at the Bell Centre.

PAT HICKEY

The Gazette

The Canadiens have literally powered their way into first place in the Eastern Conference.

Montreal scored three power-play goals to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 in overtime Thursday night at the Bell Centre.

It was the fifth consecutive for the Canadiens, who improved to 5-2 on the season.

Max Pacioretty delivered the winning goal at 2:57 of overtime. The Canadiens were enjoying a 4-on-3 advantage after Wayne Simmonds was whistled off for cross-checking at 2:26.

“That penalty gave us a huge lift,” said Pacioretty, who redirected Tomas Plekabnec’s pass through the crease. “Neither team wanted to take a chance but we were able to open it up with the extra man. I think everyone expected Pleky to shoot but when (Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov) sealed the post on the short side, it left room for the pass to get through.”

“It’s not like the other night when we had 10 power plays and scored on two of them,” said Brian Gionta, who scored twice to tie the game at 1-1 and 2-2. “We had four of our five power plays in the final period and the OT and it was like the puck had eyes.”

The Canadiens had to come from behind twice.

Brayden Schenn gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead when he scored at 14:56 of the first period.

There wasn’t another goal until Gionta scored at 5:21 on a play which showed the Canadiens’ perseverance. Bryzgalov almost lost his head as he raised his blocker in a nick of time to stop a P.K. Subban blast from the blueline. Louis Leblanc’s rebound attempt hit the goaltender’s pad and Gionta was able to tap in the second rebound.

Sean Couturier put the Flyers back in front at 7:18 but Gionta set up the overtime when he scored a power-play goal at 9:10 on a feed from Plekanec.

“I feel more comfortable than I did last year,” said Plekanec. “Gio is healthy and (Scott Gomez) has played well on the left side. There’s been a lot about our lack of size but we used our speed and our skill to create chances tonight and we drew some penalties. That’s something we weren’t doing last season.”

If Subban is bristling over the one-year, $2-million contract he signed on the eve of training camp, it hasn’t shown in his play. He leads the Canadiens in ice time with better than 26 minutes a game. He played a season-high 30:19 against the Flyers.

Canadiens fans will probably have their last chance to see Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne when they lead the Anaheim Ducks into the Bell Centre on Saturday night.

103 Comments

Well it’s not like Habs fans (except Timo and I) have not been living in fantasy land with regards to their team for the past few years. This EA stuff is closer to reality than we’ve seen here at HIO since I can remember.

Sounds like he was hoping the lockout would have been settled by now. His contract was only for a month when signed. Maybe he will hook up with more of the boys at training rinks and keep in condition.

It confounds me that a lot of people seem to blame the players as much as the league.

I’m curious: which of these statements do you most agree with:
A. The players are being short-sighted and greedy. They should have just given in to 50-50 – even with rollbacks they are doing better than before the last CBA.
B. The players and owners are equally to blame in this – both are just being short-sighted and greedy.
C. The egos of Bettman and Fehr are the real problem here.
D. The players have given up a lot to the league, and have been more productive generally in making concessions while the owners are showing they don’t give a crap, they want it their way or nothing.

I have heard all views – all are arguable. My view is D (obviously from my posts). The league has shown zero compromise unless you count backing down from their ridiculous first proposal of 43% which is part of the issue – the league has sown bad blood throughout this process – they couldn’t have screwed this up more if they tried.

I really don’t care about who to blame, who is more greedy or stupid/arrogant/egoistical whatever…
Both sides messed up on some occasions, both sides are trying to manipulate the fan’s opinion, and both sides are to blame for the lack of hockey right now.

None of that really matters, all that matters is that they get a deal done. Unfortunately, the players are in a fight they can’t win, do they really want to lose a year’s salary and possibly more to avoid some sort of roll back? Great article here by Steve Simmons.

So even if the players accept a roll back, they will always make that money back and the agents will always outsmart the GM’s to get ridiculous contracts. So in the end, it doesn’t matter, all that matters right now is that Bettman and Fehr are on the brink of cancelling another season.

The players are lucky to have a 30 team league. In reality, the sport does not seem able to support that fact. It may be Bettman and the owners’ fault but the fringe players and the fans will pay the piper. If they keep this up, many of them will be playing in Europe for good.

I feel that the present situation is due to a combination of C & D. The owners don’t really give a crap and of course as I have already said (several times) Bettman and Fehr are in this to win. Unfortunately, the players are going to end up taking a worse deal than what has already been offered to them as they will eventually be forced to accept whatever it takes to get back on the ice.

Good read. Glad to see the offensive guys are doing well offensively. Collectively their +/- is bad but that’s probably a work in progress. WRT Hudon, I believe he played wing (not always) in the Summit Series and really did well so maybe there is a move afoot to give him less defensive responsibilities and let him be creative. Great player from what I’ve seen. WRT Thrower, he’s probably the prospect I would expect the least out of anyway. He was a suprising pick by Timmons anyway. Overall, great to see the prospects showing their stuff.

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“It just goes to show how difficult predictions are, especially ones made about the future.”

I agree that these fantasy games are a waste — no one cares, perhaps aside from the reporter and techie themselves, about the results of a video game simulation.

If the reporters are looking for ways to fill the void left by the work stoppage, how about dedicating more time and energy to the Bulldogs, the Habs players playing abroad, what other Habs players are doing to fill their time, or what Habs alumni are doing these days? Any of these suggestions would be far more interesting and beneficial — and would be in keeping with a journalist’s role — than making up an article based on a video game.

Hey Pat, don’t you just love social media? LOL You’re the best, your articles are usually great, some of my favorites on the site. But the fantasy stuff…. not worth the effort.
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Listen to the Smart Dog. He knows his poop!

I just took the time to change my pass word to log in to say the exact same thing…this fantasy crap just aint cutting it and makes me crazy mad/sad that these f@#k nuts can’t split their 3.5 (and growing) BILLION $ pie.

we the fans that shell out every single PENNY of their PIE
get crap pie in return.

Agree 100% on the fantasy stuff, nobody cares. Here’s an idea, how about reporting on actual hockey? Like maybe what is going in the Q, or OHL, or WHL, or the Bulldogs? Also, nobody really cares about locked out NHL players playing in Europe and nobody in North America cares about the KHL either.

What will Leaf fans do after the Leafs win the Stanley Cup?
Turn off the X-Box.

I know it’s not a very new joke, however, that’s what I think of every time I see one of these articles to be honest. It’s bad enough that the radio station that prompted people to flood 911 with calls about Chara and the whole, “No stupid stinking English pig can possibly coach this team” rally have made the team and it’s fanbase a bit of a laughing stock recently already, now we have news sources reporting on video game scores and celebrating Habs wins because it’s been so long since the team on the ice gave us one to celebrate blah blah blah that this just seems like it’s another anti-Habs joke waiting to be picked up on by other fans to make the Habs and their fans another punchline. *Just how I see it though*

I doubt anyone even reads the fantasy columns. The HIO people are just going through the motions. No one wants to fold the pages until hockey comes back, no one wants to spend the money to cover levels of hockey with historical low readership.

I think though at some point you have to acknowledge NHL hockey is over. Too many work stoppages. The NHL had a minimum cap level but sites like Capgeek exist to show how some owners tip-toe or can negotiate around it. Now the same guys have locked the players out. The ones charging a fortune for a ticket are supporting the ones giving tickets away.

Naw, it’s over now. This is all about taking money from fans to support a failed business model. I don’t know anyone who believes the Flyers will suddenly not top up the roster because the NHL will only let them spend 56 million or that the Rangers will not bury contracts or “entice” other businessmen to accept them.

What you see is what you get. This isn’t a one off. Bettman, representing the owners, is lustily booed in each arena. Not in fun, he is disliked. That means the owners are disliked. That indicates their tactics are disliked, their business model is disliked, and a fan paying to watch the Habs play the Leafs dislikes paying Phoenix to play San Jose.

I agree, not the least interested in the fantasy crap. I haven’t read a single article.
WRT Cammi, I would love to know, from his perspective, what happened to get him traded. He was one of my fave Habs and I still enjoy seeing him play. I don’t remember too many times cursing out loud when Cammi had the puck. Smart player with good head and hands. The Habs are missing him. Big time playoff performer. Good luck to him.

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“It just goes to show how difficult predictions are, especially ones made about the future.”

If the season is lost, how do the players think that they will ever recoup their losses? On average, an NHL player’s career lasts 5 or 6 years but this probably includes lots of players that only are up for a few games. Therefore it can be assumed that the real average is more like 7 or 8 years. It can also be assumed that the average player is half way through their career so they only have 4 more years to play. If they lose their salary for the full season, how do they expect to cover that loss in the next 3 years? Only players coming into the league can possibly benefit from this. The owners on the other hand can afford to keep the players locked out until they get the deal they want.

The real average is more like 3 to 5 seasons. The players with careers of more than 15 years skew the average.
Even if players put aside money, the only ones that can afford lost seasons are players with ludicrous contracts, like Shea Weber.
The first thing I would do is to never have signing bonuses ever again. The second would be that contracts cannot be more than 5 seasons in length. This doesn’t stop a GM from negotiating extensions year to year for star players.

I don’t think Donald Fehr is all that concerned with your point Mustang. The problem is that the two Heads of State are more concerned with winning this battle and the legacy that follows.

Unfortunately, if indeed this lockout continues for a few months, only then will the screams from players be heard by Fehr, by then the owners will start to be in the drivers seat and a worse deal will be made for the players than currently exists. This will only further drive a spike between the players and owners, thus meaning we play this song and dance again when the next CBA expires.

I think Paul Kelly as director of the NHLPA was far more interested in creating a relationship between the PA and the owners, thus allowing small wins for the players throughout the life of the CBA and perhaps a smoother negotiation into the current CBA talks.

Donald Fehr has helped create this current adversarial approach and unfortunately Bettman then takes it to a whole different level due to his personality.

A shame…. sad way perhaps for Selanne and others to finish their careers. I wonder if a guy like Ryan White plays in the NHL again. If this goes a whole year, there will be another batch of young players ready for the NHL and many 4th liners now getting to 2nd and 3rd contracts will be replaced.

Cal & Burlington, you are confirming my thoughts. I believe that Bettman and Fuhr are both in this fight to win, no matter the cost to the league or to the players. They should all (players, owners, etc) be given a copy of the fairy tale about KILLING THE GOOSE THAT LAID THE GOLDEN EGGS. Maybe they would then get back to reality.

If, as expected, the NHL cancels all November games, the players will already have lost more than the owners originally planned to take from them; and the longer the lockout goes on, the worse deal they’ll eventually get. Right now they’re willing to settle for 50/50 provided all existing contracts are honoured. Eventually they’re going to have to settle for less than 50% with a considerable salary rollback, in addition to losing some or all of this year’s salary. I don’t understand how they do not see this. They cannot win this fight; the only question is how much they’ll lose. The NHL made what is almost certainly its best offer last week; they were idiotic not to accept it. The “principle” they are fighting for (that contracts be honoured) is going to cost all of them a lot of money and some of them their careers.

Whether the players know what is going on or not…. thats not gonna be an issue.

If you hire a bunch of people who willingly come into your factory, and work for $5 an hour. Even though they willingly did it. They are employees and can sue you to get paid minimum wage.

The bigger issue at stake here. The big question that will decide this lawsuit (if it becomes a lawsuit) is this. “Are those players, employees of the CHL teams?” The answer to that question is a lot more complex and I’m not sure the answer.

@commandant-
How do you suppose these teams will get the extra money it will take to improve those education packages? Will they pry it out of the generous hearts of the owners or will the fans pay more? Hmmmm, whatever will those owners do?

I agree with both of you, if these kids get better education that is great, also will help some parents with the decisions these kids face at age 15/16 whether or not to forego a potential U.S. Scholarship by playing Junior.

The costs have to be covered, teams with healthy attendance like London/Kitchener will easily cover the cost in ticket prices, while smaller teams will probably make less profit. The challenge will be how the OHL tries to ensure these new costs don’t hurt the small teams.

Looking forward to seeing the Bulldogs play tonight. Oh yeah, and meeting fellow Hockey Inside/Outers (or is it Hockey Insiders/Out?). Understand one or two Hab prospects in the ECHL could dress for tonight’s game. Here are some of the possible call-ups:

Yo-Yo Meh LW – The lanky forward has had an up-and-down career with a history of indifferent play but so far he’s strung together a strong season as a second stringer. A musical prodigy, he’s had a tough time playing professional hockey against uni-talented foes jealous of the cellist who have forced Meh to use violence to defend himself.
The left winger’s most memorable moment was with a right winger in October 2009, when he played a duet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Asked about his pianist’s musical accompaniment, Meh replied diplomatically: “Well, it is the off-season.”

Jack Squatt D – The fireplug blueliner is nearing the end of a career that has seen him play for 11 teams. Consecutively, it should be added, as there have been games when fans have suggested he’s playing for two teams concurrently. Limited in both height and talent, Squatt has never wanted for desire. In fact, his fierce love of hockey is what has kept him in the game for so long and anyone who argues he should hang up his skates after this season doesn’t know Jack Squatt.

Henry ‘Plague’ Cleghorn D – Cleghorn is a ‘good ole boy’ who is also one of the dirtiest players in hockey. He’s earned his nickname for the widespread harm he has inflicted on opponents, and it isn’t by way of an infectious smile, although to be fair, he does possess one. Cleghorn’s also loquacious, on and off the ice, so much so he never allows listeners to get a word in edgewise. Those who attempt to do so will find themselves at the short end of a long stick, on and off the ice. His most famous feuds, with George ‘Barnyard’ Dogg and Henery Hawke, have been well-documented.

‘Haltin’’ Dalton McGinn G – The Ottawa native was the league’s premier netminder for nine years, with a reputation for turning aside – halting – his rivals’ best shots and winning a majority of his games. But McGinn wasn’t above employing foul play every now and then to clear the crease, following in the footsteps of Billy Smith and Ron Hextall. The pro rogue is calling it quits, however, having recently announced his retirement. His last official stop – boarding up the arena until a replacement can be found – is likely to tarnish his legacy.

Squib Hennessey C – The diminutive forward with the explosive temper is hugely popular as a guest speaker in the off-season. The only thing quicker than his skating is his wit, which he uses to skewer opponents before sticking it to them good, with wood. His name has entered the hockey lexicon by way of the ‘Hennessey hat trick’ – a goal, a spearing penalty and a post-game quip.

After reading some of the criticism of my last post yesterday, I read it over again and recognized some errors.

1st it was said to me that he sold out 80% not (86% type O),and I am sure he told me $80 million. But now I am wondering if he said all his loses were last year?
Regardless, I think he made his point about the health of some of the franchises. And that the players union is going to have to make substantial moves before they will get back to the table.
But the rum was just fine!

He certainly looks great indeed Chris. I think also with the OHL making changes that have reflected in less fighting it will improve the play in the league. I am hopeful less and less Jr. teams will continue to employ “goons”.

I decided I had to have some hockey tonight so paid $6.99 to watch Sarnia against Windsor on the OHL site. Quality was OK and it didn’t keep going down like some of the free feeds. Galchenyuk looked great, Brady Vail also looked good although he had no points. He’s a very smooth skater and has a good shot.

YAAAAAAAHHHHH. I was at this game guys and girls. Sitting right up against the glass. Our boys are on a role. It has been a while since I have seen our Habs play this well. Can’t wait for next game against the Ducks. Anyone know where I can get some live streaming of the game.